New owner - engine advice required

[Scala-wag]

Hi there,
So I’ve always fancied a mk2 scirocco, and last weekend I finally got one (1991 Scala, 1.8i 8v). It drove the 580 miles north without incident. The engine seems strong and reasonably well looked after for he age. It’s only got 96k miles on her. But I feel like if it’s going to be a daily driver, I might be better off upgrading to something a bit newer.
Has anybody got any recommendations?

[the edmundator]

The DX engine that you have is reliable, strong and easy to maintain. It is capable of covering many times the mileage yours has done, if properly maintained. There’s no reason to change it for a daily driver. You’ll easily get in the high 30’s to low 40’s mpg and it is quite fast enough to keep pace with modern traffic.

I’d only do an engine conversion if yours was knackered or you desperately wanted more power.

[Scala-wag]

I like the sound of that.
I’m taking her in to the garage for a health check over the weekend. Hopefully get a clean bill of health.

[BlackGTX]

Make sure you coil ht leads and earths are in good order and you shouldnt have issue

The injection engine makes 112bhp which doesnt sound much bit the car is 900 ish kg

Just enjoy driving it

[mark1gls]

I use my Mk1 Golf Gti cabriolet (same engine as yours) as my daily drive and have for over 20 years. The original engine lasted 27 years and 270,000 miles before it started to use a lot of oil, 500 miles for 1/2l oil and I could leave a good smoke screen when I floored it

I found a replacement DX engine with 100,000 miles took the head off just to check it over as it was sat outside in a garden for 4 years and it was all good inside, the replacement engine as a good engine, does not burn any oil, plenty quick enough as I do sometimes drive it like I stole it and easily keeps up with most modern cars, I even surprise some BMW drivers... it returns a good 40 mpg on a steady drive to work (50 mile commute to and from work), it’s an easy engine to work on and most parts are cheap and easy to get hold of.
My Golfs now on 295,000 miles and there is a Mk2 Scirocco on here with 500,000 miles on the clock so plenty of life in your engine.

10,000 mile or 12 month 10w40 semi synthetic oil and good quality MANN or genuine VW oil filter changes.
20,000 mile or 2 years for fuel filter.
Buy a K&N panel air filter so you only have to clean it every 50,000 miles and don’t ever need to buy another air filter.
Change gearbox oil every 40,000 miles or 4 years with fully synthetic oil.
20,000 miles or 2 years for spark plugs, HT leads, dissy cap and rotor arm.
Check which type/colour of coolant is in the car and if needed change that on regular basis.
Cambelt and tensioner every 40,000 miles or 4 years.
Fuel injectors last about 100,000 miles so if start up when cold is lumpy and ok when warm it’s usally leaking fuel injectors..

You will have a very reliable engine which should see you for another 100,000 miles no problem.

Keep a close eye on the fuel filler neck and clean the mud from around the filler neck underneath the wheel arch and any signs of rust appearing inside the pipe when filling up change the filler neck as water, dirt etc in the tank will kill the fuel injection system, it starts to get expensive replacing bits of that...

[Scala-wag]

Wow, thanks!
Yeah, I think a good service and she should be good for a while.
I’ll pop some photos up when she’s all cleaned up and looking pretty

[mr.brown]

"580 miles north"? Where do you live - Shetlands?

I'd echo the sentiments above, the engine should be the least of your worries.

Get the garage to pay particular attention to rust around the fuel areas - tank, all the link pieces, accumulator, pump, filler neck.

If they'll let you in to take a look all the better - that way you can familiarise yourself with what a complicated horror show the mk2 injection system is.

Rust anywhere will be your main concern, mechanicals are fairly easily sourced as they are shared with the mk1 Golf/Cabriolet but body parts are only going to get harder to source.

I've also just recently bought a mk2 Scala injection and the aim is to drive it as much as I can

[Scala-wag]

Close... I’m FROM Shetland but living in Aberdeen. I picked her up from Southampton. 10 hr drive and she averaged 45mpg
She’s been garaged most of her days so in terms of rust, she’s in pretty good shape. I do intend to give her a full body respray at some point but thinking to run her for a year first to discover any niggles that need sorted first.

[mark1gls]

I forgot the mention these engine run best on super unleaded petrol, you can change the timing to run them on normal unleaded but I found the car seems a little down on on power and I found I used more petrol running on normal unleaded.

Did the seller mention which type of fuel they have set the car up to run on?

[andyb]

Strangely enough I am more or less in same position - I recently purchased a 1989 1.8 8v K-Ket Scala and drove it up from England. I am bit of a VW fan ( have two vans - a T25 and a T4) always fancied the Scirocco since the eighties. As mentioned above your engine should be good to keep - I wouldn't dream of changing mines as I like to keep the vehicles stock - if you do rip the DX out let me know I would be very interested in it and the K-Jet ancillaries - and I am in Aberdeen frequently.
Mines has 152K on it and as soon as I got it home I fully flushed engine of coolant and oil and did gearbox also - since then the list has grown quite extensively but as I said I have a soft spot for VWs.

[chopperoli]

Scala-wag haha that's the best user name by miles